Ascensión Novas, 26, is alone in the Cervantes school courtyard about to close the gate on Sant Pere Mitjà street, in Ciutat Vella, in Barcelona. The school opens in summer a few hours a day to meet the double condition of being a member of the program Schoolyards and one of the 200 centers of the Refugis Climàtics network activated by Barcelona City Council to combat the heat wave. It will only open this August three hours a day (from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.). On Monday there were two children, on Tuesday none and yesterday, 14, who enjoyed playing with the shower to cool off planted in the patio.
”Not everyone knows. The few who know about the service are parents of P-3s. As a monitor, I get bored”, says this young man of Dominican origin and former student, smiling resignedly, emphasizing: “This was not there when I was little. We were dying of heat.” In the afternoon, contrary to what happened in July, the school will be closed. Jacob Marín, 32, a salesman for ONCE, who works right in front of the Cervantes, points out: “I don’t see many people going to school to acclimatize.” This case is not an exception. The network of shelters, created in 2019, is made up of 202 centers but many are closed or with reduced hours in the middle of August. Or, simply, the neighbors do not know that it exists because the information has not reached them.
The municipal group of Esquerra has made an inventory and considers the plan a “teasing.” The Republicans assure that of the 202 centers, including libraries, clubs or outdoor parks, only 67 are fully open; 61 partially and 74, closed. “Many of these shelters do not work during the hours with the sun,” lamented Marx Zañartu, mayor of ERC, in a statement.
“Isn’t the library open? oh! We came to get our membership card”, explains a young Pakistani man, with an envelope under his arm, accompanied by his wife, in front of the Sant Pau y Santa Creu library, on Carme street. A large sign announces that it will be closed from August 1 to 15. Behind the fence, you can see the Refugi climatic logo. Of the 29 libraries in Barcelona, there is only one open for each of the 10 districts and as of the 15th, four more will be open. In Ciutat Vella, only the Bonnemaison is available and from the first hour there is already a queue of users. There is no trace of the Refugi Climàtic badges. “But if people come to rest and drink water,” says an employee.
The municipal ERC group has denounced that of the total of 202 centers, 67 are fully open; 61 partially and 74, closed
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The City Council has promoted the idea that all Barcelonans have a center, with climatic comfort, accessible, recommended for people more sensitive to heat such as grandparents, babies or people with respiratory diseases, 10 minutes from home. But many go unnoticed: they are still public places with air conditioning or parks. “Advertisement has been made but very few people have come. Only two ladies who had a relative in the Hospital del Mar and a boy on Wi-Fi”, says Rosa Jordar, 57, a worker at the environmental education facility La Fábrica del Sol, in La Barceloneta, looking at a young man engrossed with his cell phone. They close at 3:00 p.m. and the two weeks in the middle of the month they will have the blind down but they will answer if someone calls. It will not happen in the La Sedeta civic center, in Gràcia: a sign with a photo of some feet in a pool warns that it is closed throughout August.
Determined, an employee of a bar in a center for the Great Gent, which can only serve its affordable drinks to older people, opens a cupboard and shows a sturdy plastic cup. He has these phrases written: “Drink water, cool off, protect yourself from the sun or put on your hat. “If someone comes in we can only give them tap water and in these glasses,” he laments. And he adds: “It doesn’t make sense. No one knows this exists. More or less the same old grandparents come”. Cristina Sierra, 60, and Yosra Daqui, 20, are going to open the Casal de Barri Congrés-Indians in Sant Andreu at 4:00 pm and their vision is more optimistic. Today a craft activity with recycling material is planned for the twenty grandparents who are going to read or play cards at a good temperature, often accompanied by their grandchildren. That yes: only in the afternoon. “Years ago it opened in the morning and hardly anyone came,” admits Sierra.
Advertising has been done but very few people have come”, says a municipal worker
Where it is not necessary to place posters is in the Parc de la Espanya Industrial in whose pond adults, children and dogs alike bathed yesterday. “I live nearby and it is very good. It is much better than Ciutadella”, affirms Lucía Domínguez, 30, accompanied by her dog More. After playing basketball, Matías Vierna, 26, and Arandú Bazam, 22, bathed for the first time to withstand 35 degrees. “The water smells like chlorine,” they said as they dried off. It wasn’t long before Ascensión Novas, the Cervantes monitor, continued his day at the Institut Vives, in Sants. It is not a climatic center. Dozens of boys gather there to play soccer.
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